Considering the tone of conversation surrounding the rise of automated, programmatic buying of online media, it is easy enough to get the impression that the days of having a human hand involved in the buying process are nearing an end.
The problem with that idea, however, is that over the last two issues of Marketing we have seen that the automated trading of online advertising space through demand-side platforms (DSPs) plays an important role in a media buy, but not an all-conquering one.
Institutionally, the impact from the evolution towards automated trading varies depending on the type of media agency. For the biggest of the big media groups, automated trading desks are being set up and shared between member agencies. Smaller, specialised digital agencies that are already somewhat analytical and performance based may simply be adjusting to add DSP buying to their toolkits.
In both situations, however, the world of automated trading is not so much bringing about a revolution in media buying, as it is an evolution, with new requirements of its inhabitants.
